Maryff,

I found I got more email responses than phone calls returned (even when I reached a person who said they would call me back). Plus I'm generally not interrupting dinner or waking someone up with email. True, some people never respond. There was a letter exchange in Sing Out a few years back about why bookers don't reply. One stance was, it was their job to do so, so they should take the twenty seconds to stamp an envelope or make a call. The booker's side was, they get too much stuff, they don't have time or money to respond to everybody.

I've appreciated a response, even when negative (Jerry Rasmussen turned us down for his series because we didn't play what he booked in a very nice letter, which I think I still have in my files somewhere). Worst response is maybe. Some contacts took years to turn into a gig, but those folks generally kept telling me to keep in touch.